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16 Alaska Just. F. 1 (1999-2000)

handle is hein.journals/aljufor16 and id is 1 raw text is: ALASKA JUSTICE FORUM A Publication of the Alaska Justice Justice Center Statistical Analysis Unit Spring 1999 UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE Vol. 16, No. 1 The Brady Act in Alaska Cassie Atwell Gun control-especially keeping hand- guns out of the wrong hands-has been a reoccurring theme across America in the last three decades. In the wake of school shootings in places like Alaska, Kentucky, Arkansas, and most recently Colorado and Georgia, the public has expressed outrage over the perceived inability of law enforce- ment to keep guns out of the hands of po- tential killers. Polls and surveys all show that growing numbers of the public feel that tougher gun laws are the most effective way to curb the violence, not just in schools but in general. Will tougher laws solve the problem? In order to ascertain the extent to which gun laws need to be strengthened, it is neces- sary to look at how the current laws are ad- ministered. The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act (18 U.S.C. 922) was enacted after the assassination attempt on President Reagan, in which his press secretary, James Brady, was shot and paralyzed. The assas- sination attempt riveted public attention in 1981, but it had been preceded by years of growing public perception of the dangers associated with handguns. Finally enacted in 1994, as an addition to the Gun Control Act of 1964, the Brady Act expressly pro- hibits the sale of handguns to individuals who fall under certain classifications. By keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and others deemed to be poten- tially dangerous, the Brady Act was to have HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE THIS ISSUE *An opinion on the Brady Act's implementation (page 2). The Bureau of Justice Statistics discusses capital punishment in 1997 (page 3). An international perspective on the death penalty (page 4). been a major step toward reducing gun vio- lence in America. The act set out specific conditions under which an individual could purchase a handgun. The individual must be a resident of the state in which the hand- gun is being purchased and must be at least eighteen years of age. The individual can- not fall under any of nine prohibited catego- ries: 0 those who are under indictment for or have been convicted of a felony fugitives from justice unlawful users of or those addicted to a controlled substance 0 those adjudicated as mental defectives or committed to a mental institution illegal aliens those who have dishonorable dis- charges from the military 0 those who have renounced their United States citizenship 0 those who are subject to a restraining order 0 those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. Under the act, law enforcement has five days to complete a background check after an individual makes formal application to purchase a handgun. But how well does the act really work? Administration of an act such as this is de- pends on the data available and the meth- ods of enforcement. To assess whether the Brady Act is working in Alaska it is neces- sary to look at two areas-training of the individuals responsible for compiling back- ground checks on applicants and the results of applicant denials. In August 1998, the Justice Center be- gan a project to determine the effectiveness of the provisions of the Brady Act in Alaska. To accomplish this, we divided the project into two parts. The first was to determine if the procedures and definitions used by each Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) in the state were uniform when determining the eligibility of each applicant for handgun purchase and if the procedures met the de- mands of the Brady Act. The second part looked at denied applicants from the An- chorage Police Department to determine the reasons for denial and the effectiveness of the background check in keeping handguns out of the hands of prohibited persons. (An- chorage was the only city that had an ad- equate number of denied applications available for analysis). Given the low popu- lation numbers of both CLEOs and denied applications, we are unable to do any statis- tical comparisons. However, a description of what we found shows areas that may re- quire further study. To determine the effectiveness of train- ing and the overall knowledge of the Brady Act, we designed and conducted a telephone survey with all 38 Chief Law Enforcement Officers (CLEO) across the state. Chief Law Enforcement Officers are the authorities re- sponsible for making the decision to approve or deny an application-in Alaska, usually the police chief in the nearest local hub com- munity or the Alaska State Trooper in a given region. Each officer was asked to have all training materials handy during the in- terview. The telephone survey was divided into three sections: training, knowledge of Brady requirements, and opinions. Infor- mation was also collected on each inter- viewee: age, race, rank, certifications (if any), type of department, number of years in law enforcement, number of years pro- cessing background checks, average num- ber of applications processed per month and length of time in the community. Training In looking at training we were chiefly concerned with how much guidance was received prior to and after the commence- ment of Brady; how adequate the training was for each officer; and what training ma- terials were provided to guide the process. Uniformity of procedures and definitions Please see Brady in Alaska, page 6

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